Sufean Kamal, 31, the son of hook-handed hate preacher Abu Hamza, has launched a legal bid to return to Britain after he was stripped of his British citizenship over allegations he fought for Al Qaeda in Syria.
Kamal’s wife and children live in the UK, and his lawyers argue that removing his citizenship was illegal because MI5’s assessment was false and that he is being denied his human rights to a family life.
“Abu Hamza's son Sufean Kamal challenges loss of citizenship at court, denies fighting for Al Qaeda.”
The case was heard last week at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, where MI5 shared classified intelligence with a panel of judges. A spook, identified only as MT, gave evidence from behind a curtain while Kamal watched from Syria via video link.
Kamal, a British-born former computer science student, fled to Syria in 2014, a year after his father was extradited to the US over terrorism offences. An MI5 assessment said he was welcomed by jihadi groups because of his father, who preached at Finsbury Park Mosque in North London before his arrest.
By 2016, intelligence agents had gathered enough evidence that Kamal was fighting with terrorist groups, leading MI5 to advise the then Home Secretary to revoke his citizenship. A MI5 assessment at the time warned: “Should Kamal return to the UK, we assess that there is a real risk that he would use his experience in Syria to assist UK-based Islamist extremists to engage in Islamist extremist activity.”
Kamal denies fighting for Al Qaeda or any terrorist groups. His lawyers claim he instead fought alongside the Assad regime and the Syrian Free Army, which was backed by the UK. “He went to fight against terrorists, not become one,” they said.
Kamal tried to return to Britain in 2019 but was arrested in Istanbul, Turkey, and held for two years. Turkish intelligence agents attempted to interrogate him about his time in Syria and deport him to Morocco, where his mother is from.
The legal battle raises the question of whether a man accused of fighting with jihadis can convince a British court that he was actually fighting on the side of the UK’s allies.